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Trumbull official urges students to explore gas, oil opportunities
By Ed Runyan
LORDSTOWN
Trumbull County Commissioner Frank Fuda told Lordstown High School seniors Wednesday to consider something other than a college education — a job in the gas and oil industry or one of the other blue-collar industries making gains in Trumbull County.
“Today there are a lot of opportunities here that don’t even require a college degree,” Fuda said at the end of the county commissioners’ regular meeting, conducted at Lordstown High School.
The area has seen nothing but declines in its work force since Fuda was a young man and blue-collar jobs were plentiful, but “today it’s a lot better,” Fuda said.
Not only are gas companies preparing to drill for gas and oil in Trumbull County, but other companies have hired in recent months — RMI of Niles and TMK-IPSCO of Brookfield, for example.
“We actually have to bring people in from outside the area — welders, machinists, truck drivers,” he said. “We are one of the best areas in the country right now for jobs.”
Sadly, many of the local people who need jobs can’t get them because of drug abuse, Fuda said.
Frank Flaminio, supervisor at Trumbull County One-Stop, part of the Trumbull County Department of Job and Family Services, told the students that only about 35 percent of applicants trying to find employment through his office can pass a drug test.
“It’s a serious problem,” Flaminio said, noting that the Alliance For Substance Abuse Prevention is having a town-hall meeting at 6 p.m. today at the Trumbull Career and Technical Center to educate the public on the alarming increase in drug abuse in Ohio.
“Be wise in what you do. One little thing can hurt you the rest of your life,” he said.
Opportunity awaits for anyone who gets the proper training for the blue-collar jobs in demand, Flaminio said.
“If you’re certified, you can make a lot of money,” Flaminio said. One job he mentioned is a computer-numerical-control machinist.
“You have to carry a wrench and a computer,” he said of that and many other good-paying job opportunities.
Fuda, who worked 35 years as a teacher in the Cleveland public school system before being elected commissioner, said he advises young people to research career fields before starting their training to be sure there are job opportunities in that field.
Terry Armstrong, Lordstown High School principal, said a high percentage of Lordstown students attend the Trumbull Career and Technical Center — some years nearly half of the graduating class.
Armstrong said the school supports any student’s decision to attend college but tells them that vocational or technical training is a good option “if that [college] is not where your interest lies.”
Because of the emergence of shale drilling here, the welding program at TCTC is looking like a very promising opportunity, Armstrong said.
Armstrong, who formerly taught government at TCTC, says he believes students are “slowly” starting to see opportunities locally for blue-collar work — something that didn’t exist 30 years ago when he and many of the students’ parents graduated from high school.